New RCGP clinical lead for end of life care, Dr Peter Nightingale, will work with charity Marie Curie Cancer Care on the project.

The scheme aims to improve primary care for patients nearing the end of their lives, and will ‘prioritise advanced care planning, patient choice of place of death, pain management, health inequalities and commissioning issues’.

Work by the college on clinical priorities including cancer, dementia and care planning will feed into the end of life care programme.

The scheme will mark the first time the RCGP’s clinical innovation and research centre has worked on a clinical priority across multiple conditions.

Dr Nightingale said: ‘I am very happy to be working with Marie Curie Cancer Care in leading the College's work in this challenging but also potentially immensely rewarding area of GP work. ‘GPs now have a remarkable opportunity to not only help patients live out the end their lives with dignity in the place of their choosing but also, through commissioning, to promote the best possible end of life care.’

In addition to developing new guidance for GPs, the end of life programme will build online tools and other support for GPs, promote primary care training and influence CCG policy.

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